Our tree had the perfect branch where each Halloween we perched our not so typical jack-o’-lantern. Our house was known as the house with the talking pumpkin. We would carve a large pumpkin, put a speaker in it, and wire up a microphone. As the neighborhood kids came up our front walkway to collect their goodies, we would take turns being the voice of the pumpkin. We could see and hear them from just inside our front door, but they couldn’t see us at all. If we knew them, we might address them by name. If not, we might comment on their costumes or tell a silly joke to get their attention. We would ask questions to see if we could get people to engage, and to our delight, most did. Very few were afraid, and most of our guests loved the experience, children and adults alike. At the end of our sixth summer in the house, we noticed the tree had a branch or two that didn’t look very healthy. Sadly, we learned that many of the willow trees in the Mojave BY LO R R I E D. G R A N T Desert were being infested by wood-boring beetles. The larvae bore into the wood, tunneling as they fed, causing fatal girdling on the willow trunk and lower branches. We Trees in the desert are a rare sight. However, there are a few. When we purchased our home, the large willow tree called Mike, the bug-man, to come out and look at the tree. He told us he could destroy in the front yard was one of the most beautiful features of the home. The shade it provided was a welcome relief the bugs on the outside of the tree to slow to the brutally hot desert summers. It cast enough shad- them down, which he did, but the beetles were burrowing through the bark of the tree ow to keep the front of our house a little cooler and the and were destroying it from the inside out. grass below the tree a bit greener. It wasn’t a huge tree, He could do nothing about the beetles on but it had been there for a few years. I couldn’t quite the inside of the tree. This was a bug-battle wrap my arms around the trunk when I gave it a hug. that even our friend Mike, hard as he tried, was going to lose. He told us it was just a Under the tree was the perfect spot to set up our little matter of time before we would lose the tree. plastic kiddie pool for the girls in the summertime. And as they got older, it was the best spot in the yard for their He recommended we remove it. Slip-n-Slide. It was also there that I placed my lawn chair as I sat and watched the neighborhood children, and my As we discussed the removal of my favorite own, make circles around the cul-de-sac on their tricycles, tree, my vote was we wait one more year before removing it. I didn’t think one more bicycles, and Barbie Jeeps. year would make much of a difference. I simply couldn’t part with my magnificent tree. Seriously, the tree didn’t look that bad, and we all know I can be a bit on the picky side. However, a year later, when summer arrived, the tree was so sick it oozed “smelly stuff”
W E E P I N G W I L LO W
58 | M AG A Z I N E N A M E PAGE 55 3 57
